BOSTON– May 15, 2018– Mentoring Minds, national publisher of critical thinking-focused educational resources,today announced four of its rigorous, research-based resources, Total Motivation ELA and Total Motivation Math for Georgia,andTexas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Mastery Seriesfor Math and English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR) are winners ofthe 2018 Academics’ Choice Awards, a prestigious seal of educational quality, reserved only for the best mind-building media and toys.
The independent Academics’ Choice Awards program and its seal of excellence are recognized worldwide by consumers and educational institutions as a mark of genuinely effective learning tools that stimulate the mind and provide potential for the student to fully develop higher-order thinking skills.
“We are honored to receive this prestigious recognition,” said Shad Madsen, CEO, Mentoring Minds. “To be included among the best of the best in thinking-based resources affirms our mission to spur student growth and develop critical thinking skills.”
Award program reviewers lauded Total Motivation ELA for Georgia as “. . . a thorough resource that any teacher or school district administrator would be proud to use,” also noting it “… does something extraordinary with its focus on vocabulary, especially the tricky Tier 2 words that seem to escape so many students.” Reviewers noted that Total Motivation Math “does such a great job of simplifying the often daunting task of aligning lesson plans and activities to state standards.”
The TEKS Mastery Series flip charts received high marks for “excellent” critical thinking prompts and for promoting “deeper student learning.”
Total Motivation ELA and Total Motivation Math address 100 percent of the Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE) with rigorous content designed to build critical thinking skills and prepare students to excel on the Georgia Milestones Assessment. Total Motivation flexes to classroom needs, adapting as a supplemental curriculum, intervention resource or even for core instruction.Available for grade levels 1-6, Total Motivation ELA engages students with high-interest reading selections and helps them progress beyond comprehension to build critical analysis skills and strong vocabularies. Activities in the Student Edition adapt for a variety of instructional settings, including whole-group, small-group, partner work or independent practice.
Total Motivation Math, also available for grade levels 1–6, provides practice and GSE-aligned instruction for all students, including items at the application level, evidence-based assessments, formative assessments, and ideas for interventions in multiple settings.
Total Motivation’s Teacher Edition equips educators with access to all of the GSE, unpacked and explained, along with a wealth of instructional strategies and research-based activities that complement the Student Edition and support teachers as they plan for instruction, intervention, formative assessment, extension and more. With these resources at their fingertips, teachers can spend more time meeting diverse needs in the classroom and less time researching lesson plans.
The TEKS Mastery Series guides educators as they design and execute instruction leading to student mastery. TEKS Mastery Series flip charts include grade-level and content-specific standards and other helpful information in a teacher-friendly format, with each standard unpacked on an individual panel. Also included are student outcomes for mastery of the standard, common errors and misconceptions, teacher-to-teacher tips, critical thinking prompts, vocabulary support, activities to build student mastery and assessments to monitor student progress.Additional components include glossary, formative assessments, critical thinking traits and critical thinking frameworks (DOK, RBT, CRM). Support for collaborative instructional conversations and valuable resources applicable for teacher training, grade-level meetings and team meetings also comprise key components of the flip charts.
The Academics' Choice Advisory Board consists of leading thinkers and graduates from Princeton, Harvard and George Washington universities and other reputable educational institutions. Product-appropriate volunteer reviewers, combined with the brainpower of the board, determine the winners. Entries are judged by category (i.e. mobile app, toy, book, website, magazine, etc.), subject area and grade level, and evaluated based on standardized criteria rooted in constructivist learning theory. Criteria for evaluation includes educational benefits such as higher-order thinking skills, character building, creative play, durability and originality.
About Mentoring Minds, the Critical Thinking for Life company
Mentoring Minds is a national K-12 publisher with a mission to put critical thinking at the center of the classroom in order to support student achievement and empower educators to teach to higher standards. Mentoring Minds’ award-winning, research-based resources are designed to be flexible for classroom needs, supporting technology integration and standards mastery for Math, ELA, and Science. Mentoring Minds’ commitment to education extends beyond the classroom, as well; the company proudly sponsors groundbreaking administrators across the nation and supports community-based education initiatives through MindShare, an employee-driven grant program. For more information, call 800-585-5258 or visit mentoringminds.com.
About Academics’ Choice™
Academics’ Choice™ helps consumers find exceptional brain-boosting material. Academics’ Choice is the only international awards program designed to bring increased recognition to publishers, manufacturers, independent authors and developers that aim to stimulate cognitive development. A volunteer panel of product-appropriate judges, including parents, educators, scientists, artists, doctors, nurses, librarians, students and children, evaluate submissions based on educational benefits such as higher-order thinking skills, character building, creative play, durability and originality. Only the genuine “mind-builders” are recognized with the coveted Academics’ Choice Award™.
